Friday, February 28, 2014

The Washington Capitals started their home stretch on the
right foot, if only with a halting step, by defeating the Florida Panthers last
night, 5-4, in Sunrise, Florida. The
Capitals never trailed in the game, but neither could they hold a lead.

The Caps opened the scoring with a pair of goals 2:22 apart
early in the first period, the first being the product of persistent stick work
by Troy Brouwer on a power play. In the
middle of the 1-3-1 set up, Brouwer had an active stick on shots coming
through, trying to deflect one past Panther goalie Tim Thomas. It would be a loose puck, though, that
Brouwer would finally backhand over Thomas’ blocker to give the Caps the
lead.

Brooks Laich made it 2-0 in short order when Alex Ovechkin
broke in with him into the Panther zone.
From the top of the left wing circle Ovechkin hinted at a shot but laid
the puck off to Laich on the opposite side.
Laich buried it before Thomas could scramble across, and it was 2-1.

That did not last.
Tomas Fleischmann got one back with less than five minutes left in the
period when he snuck into the slot and converted a pass from behind the net by
Jesse Winchester. Brad Boyes tied it 40
seconds into the second period when he swept in a loose puck lying at the post
to the left of goalie Braden Holtby.

The Caps recaptured their two-goal lead in the period, first
when Nicklas Backstrom snapped a loose puck in the low slot past Thomas, and
next when Brouwer walked calm as you please into the crease and tapped the puck
past a prone Thomas.

Florida got them back in an 82-second span in the third
period, courtesy of Drew Shore on a power play, then Boyes again at the 9:23
mark. That left things up to
Ovechkin. It started when the Panthers
could not clear the puck out of their zone along the right wing wall. When Panther defenseman Dmitry Kulikov
chipped the puck along the wall, it seemed to be a signal for his teammates to
fly the zone. When Nicklas Backstrom knocked
down the attempt at the blue line and chipped the puck back to Brooks Laich, it
created a 2-on-1 for Laich on the right side and Ovechkin on the left, Mike
Weaver the only Panther back. Laich held
the puck until Weaver committed and laid out, then slid the puck across to
Ovechkin who one-timed the puck past Thomas for the game-winner.

Other stuff…

-- Remember that stuff about two-goal leads we scribbled a
little while back? The Caps added two more two-goal leads to their body of work this season, lost
them both, and still won the game. They
are now 16-1-2 when taking a two-goal lead and preventing the other team from
earning one.

-- In his last 12 appearances in which he played all 60
minutes, Braden Holtby has allowed four or more goals seven times. Draw your own conclusions.

-- Two power play opportunities, two power play goals. It was the first time this season the Caps
pulled off that trick.

-- The top line sure was working. Brooks Laich, Alex Ovechkin, and Nicklas
Backstrom each went 1-2-3. For Laich it
was his first multiple point game this season and his first since April 5,
2012, against these same Florida Panthers (a 4-2 Caps win to clinch the 2012
Southeast Division title). It was his
first three-point game since November 1, 2011, in a 5-4 overtime win against
the Anaheim Ducks.

-- On the other hand, it was Backstrom’s third multiple
point game in his last five contests. He
broke a 15-game streak without a goal, although he is now 1-8-9 over his last
six games.

-- For Ovechkin it was his fourth multi-point game in his
last nine games. He is 11-11-22 over his
last 18 games and has points in 14 of those games.

-- Let’s not leave Troy Brouwer out of this. His two power play goals make it five goals
in his last three games. It was the first time he recorded two power play goals
in a game since December 13, 2010, when he had a pair in a 7-5 loss to the
Colorado Avalanche and he was skating for the Chicago Blackhawks.

-- Also not to be left out of the multiple point parade is
John Carlson. He had a pair of assists
to make it three multi-point games in his last six. He is 1-7-8 over his last nine games.

-- Four shifts, 2:20 of ice time, no
shots, no points, no good. Mikhail
Grabovski left the game in the first period after getting tangled up with Nick
Byugstad, apparently reinjuring his wonky ankle.

-- Grabovski’s injury meant some scrambling of lines and
roles. One effect – Jay Beagle skated 15:31, his second highest ice time logged
this season.

-- It strikes us as a bit odd that Nicklas Backstrom, who
took the most faceoffs for the Caps last night, was the only Cap to be under 50
percent for the evening (5-for-16; 31.3 percent).

-- Mike Green had a game he probably does not want to
remember. Green skated only 18:35 in his
return from a concussion sustained against Columbus back on February 4th. It was his first time under 20 minutes in a
full game since December 27th (19:10) and his lowest ice time for a
full game since December 17th against Philadelphia (18:05). He was on the ice for three Panther goals,
although his partner (Dmitry Orlov on the first two of them) certainly played a
role, getting walked around on the boards leading to the first Panther goal and
wandering away from the post to let Brad Boyes tap in a loose puck for the
second Florida score.

-- Nicolas Deschamps got a sweater when Marcus Johansson was
a late scratch. Nine shifts, 7:38 in ice
time. Welcome to the show, kid.

“After that game, it’s a win, but it’s not really a winning
feeling in here at the moment.”

Yeah, OK. You still
got two points. So suck it up. Things are going to get real, really
fast. Boston, Philadelphia, and
Pittsburgh – twice apiece – over the next seven games. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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The Washington Capitals enter the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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